Dams Don't Add Up

Taxpayers and electric ratepayers are on the hook for millions more
because the dams are killing salmon faster than we can replace them.

So we'd all be ahead if the federal government simply tore out those dams
-- to say nothing of the money the Northwest economy would earn from a
healthy salmon fishing industry.

That's not some environmentalist, fish-loving advocacy group saying it.
It's Taxpayers for Common Sense, a bottom-line oriented lobby that goes
after boondoggles like the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska or subsidizing
oil and gas companies when they're making record profits.

In its report released last week, Taxpayers for Common Sense outlined the
next best thing to a congressional cost-benefit analysis of the dams.

Luring it to the project were the billions already spent and projected to
be spent on salmon recovery in the Northwest. Indeed, salmon recovery now
is the most expensive species restoration project in the country -- and
there's no end in sight. The government will spend $600 million a year
just to keep the fish from going extinct, not to bring them back to
healthy numbers.

Maybe that's not disturbing to Idaho Gov.-elect Butch Otter and Idaho's
congressional delegation, who have -- not surprisingly -- dismissed the
latest study. But you have to wonder how much longer the rest of the
country will be willing to put up with this.

Here's how the situation might appear to them:

Despite allocating $7 billion since 1982, the government hasn't
recovered the fish. Nothing's worked -- not barging young fish around dams
nor installing fish bypass systems.

Fish biologists insist that removing the four Lower Snake dams is the
one stroke that could restore the fish. Otherwise, salmon recovery efforts
could demand more water from the Upper Snake's irrigation system.

The feds can't get their act together. The Bush administration's salmon
plan doesn't even shoot for fish recovery. A federal judge in Oregon has
rejected that plan. U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has responded by
trying to overturn Judge James Redden's ruling with a congressional rider.

Taxpayers for Common Sense freely admits its numbers are estimates. What's
needed is a new study adding up the dams' benefits and their costs.
Already, nearly 100 Republican and Democratic members of Congress support
assigning the Government Accounting Office -- the independent research arm
of Congress -- to do just that.

A Democratic majority in Congress may champion that idea.

If the study happens, Idaho's politicians could be in for a surprise.

For your information

Here's how Taxpayers for Common Sense adds up the numbers.

Continuing to operate the dams will require $7.8 billion to $9.09 billion
in the next decade. That includes:

$742 million to $834 million a year on salmon recovery.

Operating the dams, navigation locks and power generators costs another
$33.7 million.

Something's got to be done about building sediment near Lewiston -- or
the community could get flooded. Estimated cost -- between $2.7 million to
$35.6 million a year (or spending $93.4 million upgrading levees).

The dam's turbines wear out. Replacing those will run $5.6 million a
year for 40 years.

Removing the dams and covering all the associated costs will run $3.1
billion to $4.5 billion during the next decade. That includes:

$790.5 million to take out the dams.

Salmon recovery costs while diminished still will run $408.6 million to
$568 million.

You'll need $79 million to $170 million to replace lost power generation.

Replacing barge with rail transportation will cost $17.7 million to
$243.7 million.

And it will cost $421 million to help irrigators obtain water from the
river.

It adds up to savings of at least $1.65 billion in the next decade. At best, taxpayers could save $11.9 billion during the same period.